


Materfamilias

by Isabella2004



Category: Law & Order
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, F/M, Love, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:07:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27819499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isabella2004/pseuds/Isabella2004
Summary: In the midst of his own personal tragedy, Ben Stone finally gets the truth from Debra Elkins.
Relationships: Ben Stone/OC





	Materfamilias

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set during my story Wreckage and references a scene from season 4 episode ‘Breeder.’ I don’t own any dialogue from that episode or the characters.

**January 1994**

He wasn't quite sure how to open the discussion.

After Gwen and Les Savitt had come to his office the previous evening and told him what Debra Elkins had done, how she had tried to extort more money from them by threatening to abort her child and how her boyfriend, Stephen Shaw, had tried to shake them down for more money with evidence of paternity that could have seen their longed for adoption halted in its tracks, he had sat for a good hour in the semi-darkness thinking. These people were despicable. It chilled him that there were women out there prepared to sacrifice their own children for money.

_How could she do it? How could anyone do it? How?_

When he had returned home that night, he had deliberately steered any conversation away from the case. When it had first landed on his desk, he had mentioned it briefly in passing to Evelyn and she had made no overtures towards wanting to hear more. She already had so much on her mind, especially with Edward's impending funeral, and the last thing he wanted to do was cause her any more upset.

"My favourite kind of adversary, Ben. Rather than suffer the agony of defeat raise those white flags early."

He fought down the urge to tell Elkin's lawyer where to go. Throughout the entire case she had challenged him at every turn, tried to make out that the line he was pursuing was wrong and unjust, that Debra was just a poor kid who wanted to make sure her baby went to the right parents instead of a cold and calculating extortionist who seemed to care nothing for the life she had been so easily able to produce. It would be a pleasure to wipe the self-satisfied smug smiles from both their faces. "You may be right Jane," he nodded. "I may not have a case against your client but against Mr Shaw…that's another story."

Shaw turned to look at him. "What are you talking about?"

"We had a discussion with the Savitts," Claire smiled innocently. "Two eyewitnesses to extortion and grand larceny."

"And they're both felonies, sir."

For the first time, Shaw looked worried. "Wait a minute. You mean I go to jail, and she walks away?"

"Shut up Stephen," Elkins said hurriedly.

"The hell with that."

"Can't you see what he's trying to do?!"

"You're entitled to a lawyer, sir." Despite everything, despite what he felt about the two people in front of him, he wasn't going to allow himself to be drawn into a situation where a confession, any confession, could be challenged later by a smart attorney and he knew that Jane wasn't going to assist in any way that might cause her own client to be thrown under the bus.

"Listen to me Stephen, listen," Elkins leaned into Shaw. "Everything is under control. They think we're just poor white trash."

"Maybe they're right."

Her expression grew angry. "You shut your stupid face!"

"Stop calling me stupid!"

"Stevie, Stevie, come on sweetie…" she put her arms around his neck and kissed him, no doubt in an attempt to seduce him like she had clearly done in the past. "I love you. Don't blow this."

He looked at her contemptuously. "You are such a _bitch_ , you know that?"

_Well said sir._

"We are making sentencing recommendations that your terms be served consecutively, not concurrently. That means, you're going away for a long time."

"Just ignore him."

"Uh, apparently Ms Elkins, _stupid_ here is going to prison for you."

Shaw met his gaze, and for the first time, Ben could see that he was frightened. Frightened of going to jail, frightened that they weren't going to be able to get away with it. He fought down the feelings in his chest and tried to remain professional. The man had fathered a child. He should have been more frightened about that and what it truly meant.

_Some father._

"I want a deal."

Elkins laughed angrily and slumped back in her chair, turning to look at her lawyer. "You see what I gotta put up with?"

Ben ignored her. "The deal depends on what you tell us."

"It was all her idea. She had this whole thing planned before she even got pregnant. I didn't want anything to do with kids. Then she gets knocked up, like it was an accident."

"Did you witness personally any of her extortion?"

"Are you kidding me?" Shaw's expression became one of almost giddy delight. It was as though now he had started talking, he couldn't stop. "She had _me_ go to the right to lifers to get these pictures. I heard her on the phone," he laughed, "she's good. You wanna know what she did? She's giving birth to the kid in the hotel room, she's on the phone taking bids between contractions. She wouldn't take him to the hospital, she wants _me_ to make a quick sale!"

"All you have is his word, Ben, and we all know how much character it takes to be a felon." Jane's expression had lost its smugness and was instead full of the irritation of someone who could see their case slowly swirling around the bowl.

Ben looked at her, looked at Shaw and then back at Elkins. He wasn't sure he trusted himself not to say how he really felt. Two months…two short months earlier, he had stood in the hospital and listened as the doctor told him that Evelyn had lost the baby. Their baby. A baby that he knew she had wanted more than anything and which, he too, knew he had loved from the moment he had learned of its very existence. How easily it had all be taken away from both of them and this…this woman in front of him…she had just tossed hers away without so much as a second glance. And Shaw? Prospective fathers were supposed to nurture and care for their partners at such a time, not assist them in using something so precious for personal gain.

_Life can be so unfair sometimes._

"How much character does it take to auction off your own child?"

Elkins let out a strangled snort, as if she couldn't quite believe he was besmirching her. "You wanna talk about character? The only reason any of these people cared about me is because I had something they wanted! You don't think I know what they think about me? They used me! So I used them back!"

She might have thought that her explanation went some way to mitigate her actions but, in reality, it only served to make them worse and he heard his voice shake slightly on his next words. "By selling a child?"

"My first kid…I'm sitting in the St Vincent Home for Girls in Poughkeepsie. All these people being nice to me, all their fake smiles their phony 'how are ya Debbie?s'. They take my baby and I'm back to my crappy apartment, my crappy life! I wasn't going to let that happen to me again! So I make babies Mr Stone, hell I'm good at it! So what if there are people willing to pay me for it?!"

He held her gaze as she emitted the first sign of true emotion that he had seen since this whole thing started. And yet, he knew it wasn't emotion for her baby, it was emotion for herself, for the fact that she had been caught, for the fact that the money train had ground to a halt. How many miscarriages had Evelyn had? How many times had she thought it was finally going to happen for her only to have it cruelly snatched away, either by circumstance or by her then husband?

_That baby meant nothing to you. Ours meant everything to us._

"Grand larceny two, Ben?" Jane offered quietly. "She serves the minimum?"

He shook his head. It was up to him to make an example of her and he would. "She serves four to twelve."

Later that evening, when Evelyn was washing up the dishes after dinner and the kids were doing their homework, he wandered up behind her at the sink and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him and kissing her neck.

"What's that for?" she asked with a laugh.

"Nothing," he replied, his face buried in the cloud of her hair. "I just love you, that's all."

She turned to face him. "I love you too. Is everything all right?"

"Fine," he kissed her and then pulled her into him again. "You would have made a wonderful mother, you know that?"

She stiffened slightly and then relaxed again. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Life isn't always perfect, is it?"

_Oh my darling, I wish I could always make it perfect for you._

"No," he agreed, thinking of the Savitts, forced to flee the city with their baby in fear of repercussions years down the line. All the money in the world and it had been a hard worn path to what they truly wanted, what they and so many other people took for granted and what Elkins and Shaw had considered so disposable. "No, it isn't."


End file.
